Regardless of the mechanism through which you attempt to generate sales leads, there are some across-the-board mistakes that end up undermining the effort. Here are the Top 5 Reasons Why Lead Gen Fails:
#1 – You have no clear call-to-action.
By definition, any lead generation effort must get customers to act to something. As basic as it may sound, a lot of lead generation campaigns fail to contain a simple call-to-action. Stating “if interested, please contact us” is not the kind of call-to-action I’m referring to here. Downloading a report and asking them to provide contact information gets you a meaningless list – not a lead. Ask people if you can get their permission for a follow-up conversation. Give people a code or other type of incentive to use when they call you. Give them the downloadable report but also give them the opportunity to get even more valuable reports by participating in a special distribution. Even better, give them a "tell a colleague" button to click on. Give them special access for things. If conducting a survey, ask them if they want to receive the complete survey results instead of automatically sending it to everyone. Don’t just tell … you need to ask.
Those are the kinds of specific, action-seeking call-to-action elements you need to put front and center of any lead generation effort. As a marketer, your goal is not to make your campaign look good at all cost with lengthy “lead” lists. Your goal is to help generate real leads that will help the sales team. Filtering out non-leads is as crucial to the campaign as filtering-in.
#2 – Your message is bad.
Oftentimes, marketers get too cute with the content or copywriting. You must write to elicit a response. The best way to ensure a response (both positive and negative) is to diagnose their problem quickly and sharply. Forget trying to win an award for great writing by spending all your time on the writing itself. Spend most of your time figuring out what problem to address and the most effective way to diagnose it sharply. Dull diagnosis elicits dull responses. Sharp diagnosis actually helps the writing and forces sharp reaction.
#3 – You’ve designed campaigns to look for all the ways to say “yes, it’s a lead.”
A lot of startups fear missing out on opportunities. So, there is a strong tendency to under-qualify leads. The rationale is that a startup desperate for any leads is making a big mistake by applying too dense a filter. With under-qualified leads, you end up passing too many people into the next stage and wind up spending equal time on both hot prospects as well as lukewarm leads. As happens in the kitchen, cold water added to hot water makes all water warm at best. It just doesn’t make sense. Go for the hottest leads and don’t worry about applying a good filter.
#4 – You aren’t cross-checking marketing leads with sales’ leads.
This happens a lot more than people would like to admit. Marketing goes and builds a lead database. They create a bunch of entries. In parallel, the sales team is constantly networking and making cold calls to create a healthy contact database. The two lists are never compared and consolidated.
#5 – You purchased a list.
Purchased lists have been out of style and abandoned for several years now. If the list were of any value, they would not sell it. Think about it for a minute. Unfortunately, even marketers sometimes do not have a free minute because people still buy lists all the time! Lists that have value are almost always rented out. Rented lists are closely guarded, regularly updated, and tightly controlled. They don’t even give you contact details. These brokers sell you results, not names. The thinking is that if you have even a moderate level of success with their service, you will become a repeat client. The proprietary list you create on your own always comes first. Then, carefully select a couple of rented lists to supplement your own list. Let others buy lists.
- John
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